their bras? so now the attention is all on the pies and murdoch's wife, wendi deng. i'm calling it pie gate. what did wendi know, and when did he know it? that's all for "hardball." "the last word with lawrence o'donnell" starts right now. tonight, the only thing wall street fears more than elizabeth warren is a tea party republican. >> zipity do-dah of >> the speaker walks out and lights up a cigarette and chain smokes it because he knows the guy behind him is trying to take away his job. >> my, oh, my, what a wonderful day. >> the speaker of the house tries the impossible. educating tea party republicans about the meaning of default. >> one-quarter of the entire house of representatives are freshmen. >> at the end of the day, we have a responsibility to act. >> almost toxic with some house republicans. >> a game of russian roulette.

>> i'm sure we have some members who believe that. >> they're new. many of them have never served in public office before. >> congress is also feeling the heat. >> obviously, i'm not qualified to speak on behalf of the marks and what they will or will not do. >> republicans in congress are driving us towards the edge of a cliff. >> but facts and republicans parted ways a long time ago. >> a war on math. >> i will not vote to increase the debt ceiling. >> your issue is not the debt limit. >> texas is back on the debate over teaching evolution in public schools. >> and the heat index, manufactured by government. >> senate republicans still want their chance to vote on the latest symbolic vote. >> cut, cap, and balance. >> we haven't have won world war ii if we had had a cut, cap, and balance on the table then. >> every reasonable voice in america has warned us time is of the essence. we are running out of time. >> and the media has finally caught up with grover norquist, the most powerful man in

republican politics. >> who made grover norquist king? >> the people have made this commitment not to raise taxes. >> if you raise tax rates, that is violating a tax pledge. >> 232 of the 240 have signed the no tax increase pledge. >> americans for tax reform would oppose any effort to weaken, reduce, or not continue the 2001-2003 bush tax cuts. rumors swept the capital this morning that the president and speaker of the house were close to an agreement on a deal, a deal that sent waves of panic through washington. democrats and republicans, who assumed their side must have given up too much. in order to strike such a deal. faced with a possible muteiny in his caucus, speak are boehner used a method that no speaker has used before to calm his troops. he tweeted. one word. false. meaning, there is no deal.

the speaker then said this in a press conference. >> i believe that the congress must act before august 2. and i hope that we're prepared to do that. i'll keep my discussions with the president between the president and myself. it would be -- it would be irresponsible on behalf of the congress and the president not to be looking at backup strategies for how to solve this problem. >> still feeling he had to make it absolutely clear that he had not moved one inch in the president's direction on taxes, the speaker of the house called the commander in chief of the republican party, rush limbaugh.

of course, cut, cap, and balance is going to go down, probably tomorrow. senate majority leader harry reid plans to bring it to a vote tomorrow, so senate republicans can vote for something cruel and erroneous before mitch mcconnell will ask some of them to vote for something more reasonable that actually gets the debt ceiling raised in the process. that of course is the fallback position that boehner is referring to and that senator mcconnell proposed last week.

both harry reid and mcconnell have been seriously negotiating ever since. reid and mcconnell's negotiations on the last resort bill are clearly the only serious negotiation, which is to say negotiations that last more than a day, that are actually happening in the midst of all the rumors that fly through the capitol every day. the white house also had to calm democrats who feared that the president had surrendered too boehner on taxes. white house communications director dan phifer sent out a series of almost panicked tweets, shooting down reports of a deal. anyone reporting a $3 trillion deal without revenues is incorrect. potus believes we need a balanced approach that includes revenues. there is no offer of a plan with no revenue. lots of misinformed, anonymous

aides talking. then, not trying to be dense, but how would you do taxes in the middle of the year? and then, there are lots of bad rumors and worse reporting today. which of course makes it like most days in washington. here is the president on npr today discussing yesterday's quickly passing fad, the bipartisan gang of six proposal that realists have declared impossible to legislate before the deadline on the debt ceiling on august 2.

tomorrow morning, president obama will hold a town hall on the, quote, ongoing efforts to find a ballanced approach to deficit reduction. he will continue to make his case to the american people that he has bent over backwards. in fact, you can expect to hear that actual phrase from the president in his dealings with republicans. offered all sorts of compromises, painful for him as a democrat, while republicans have remained immovable in their defense of tax breaks for corporate jets, and any form of tax revenue increase. the president will make that case, with the full confident as proven by polls, that his position has the overwhelming support of the american people, including most republican voters. republican congressional leadership as usual will look on helplessly as the president commands a national television audience, and try to calculate how much political damage the

president's public reasonableness and the tea party's public insanity is inflicting on the republican party. joining me now is former governor howard dean, former chair of the democratic national committee, and a cnbc contributor. thank you for joining me tonight, governor dean. >> thank you for having me on, lawrence. i love that line about public insanity. that's what it is. >> and you hear boehner now talking about, hey, 25% of these people are freshmen in the house of representatives. what he's trying to say if you've got to understand how hard it is, working with these amateurs, trying to make them even understand what the debt ceiling is. >> he's in a tough position, worse than mcconnell, i think. if i'm john boehner, i look at the analysis this way. i could lose my speakership if i make a deal, but i'm definitely going to lose my speakership if i don't make a deal, because this is killing the republicans. if we go over the cliff, we're going to pay the debts. and then the president is going to have to say but we can't pay

the veterans and the social security and the military contractors and so forth and so on, because we can't do both with no money coming in from the debt ceiling. so the republicans are going to wear this. it's incredibly clear. i think the white house as you pointed out last week has done a terrific job of making the republicans wear this as they should, since they have been incredibly unreasonable throughout the entire discussion. >> and boehner is starting to look weary. we have seen this happen. when most of their problems in leadership positions, they always come from within their own party. the other party tends to act in a fairly predictable way. but he has this unpredictable dynamite going off in his party in the house. >> he has to do something unusual. he has to pass a bill with republican and democratic votes. he needs to be talking with pelosi right now about how they can get this together and pass something that's fairly moderate and just throw the tea party

people over the side. look, some of them are so extreme they are not going to get re-elected anyway. he is in a really tough spot. he is an adult. mcconnell is an adult. there are not too many of those in the house caucus that -- or at least not enough of them to pass a reasonable bill. and that's his problem. >> now, the president has an op-ed in tomorrow's ""usa today"," in which he stresses, quote, the balanced approach position. he is going to stress that balanced approach, saying that a balanced deficit deal that includes some new revenues isn't just a democratic position. it's a position that has been taken by everyone from warren buffett to bill o'reilly, and it's been the position of every democratic and republican leader who has worked to reduce the deficit in their time from ronald reagan to bill clinton. >> true. >> he's got a winning position there, governor, doesn't he? >> he does. and the polls show it. ronald reagan raised taxes five

times. the republicans don't want to talk about it. this is lunacy. they are destroying the safety net of the country, and ultimately they would destroy the country if they get in charge. and i don't think they'll get in charge, because the american people have to be terrified of what's been unleashed in the 2010 elections. these are committed people where the facts never get in the way of their story. and you can't run a democracy or anything else if you don't care what the facts are. and they genuinely do not care what the facts are. they make them up as they go along. >> governor, did you sense in washington today some real worry among democrats that the president may be straying over the line into some position that they would not be able to vote for? >> well, lawrence, i think that's left over from the health care debate. a lot was given away to the insurance industries and others during the health care debate. a lot of people in the democratic party are really worried about what might happen. the tax debate, even though i think -- and i agreed with most of the democrats on this one, but i think the president did a great job after the election on the tax debates.

many of the democrats felt that he should not have given away the decrease in taxes for the wealthy in exchange for the extension of unemployment benefits. it made the president look like a strong leader, so politically it was a winner. but i can see why the democrats are gun shy. >> governor howard dean, thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> thank you. coming up, grover norquist exposes a technicality in his anti-tax pledge. but we'll explain why democrats really can't celebrate just yet. and new details tonight in rupert murdoch's media empire and hacking allegations in the united states. word on where the federal investigators are already digging. this past year alone there was a 93% increase in cyber attacks. in financial transactions... on devices... in social interactions...

and applications in the cloud. some companies are worried. some, not so much. thanks to a network that secures it all and knows what to keep in, and what to keep out. outsmart the threats. see how at cisco.com cisco.

coming up, grover norquist

most certainly did not throw negotiators a lifeline today. and later, stephen colbert actually breaks character, and for depend reason. we'll show you the tape. stephen colbert as you have never seen him before. challenge that with olay regenerist night elixir. its gentle glycolic formula resurfaces at night for the smooth skin of a light chemical peel. sleep tight. regenerist, from olay. with listerine® whitening plus restoring rinse. it's the only listerine® that gets teeth two shades whiter and makes tooth enamel two times stronger. get dual-action listerine® whitening rinse. building whiter, stronger teeth.

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"the post's" ruth markus asked president norquist if allowing the bush tax cuts to expire at the end of 2012 would violate that pledge. not continuing a tax cut is not technically a tax increase. mr. norquist told us. so it doesn't violate the pledge? we wouldn't hold it that way, he said. norquist had pointed out that republicans could allow the bush tax cuts to expire and raise government revenue by as much as $4 trillion over the next decade without violating the grover norquist pledge. the pledge to him to oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates. this made democrats very excited. >> grover norquist, the hall monitor when it comes to enforcing the republican party's anti-tax pledge, has given house republicans a hall pass.

they should use it. >> i think mr. norquist has made a very, very important statement that i hope that they each take into consideration. >> less than 40 minutes after congressman hoyer praised the development, norquist appeared on this network to clarify that though allowing the bush tax cuts to expire may not technically violate his pledge, that does not mean republicans should actually do it. >> now, hoyer is wrong. there are certain things you could do technically and not violate the pledge, but that the general public would clearly understand is a tax increase. so i can be clear, americans for tax reform would oppose any effort to weaken, reduce, or not continue the 2001-2003 bush tax cuts. >> when reporters asked republican leadership if they would exploit the pledge technicality, "the washington post" editorial board had exposed, they said, of course, absolutely not.

>> i'm saying if you raise tax rates, that is violating a tax pledge. when we keep raising taxes in washington, for efemerral promises of spending cuts that never happen later, that's not goodment >> i have never voted for raising taxes, and i don't have to. >> but boehner doesn't have to vote for raising taxes in rtd for taxes to go up. as a matter of fact, no one would have to vote to raise taxes for taxes to gun. they are already scheduled to go up a year and a half from now if congress does absolutely nothing. the norquist pledge is about votes. it's about casting votes. it's about voting against tax increases when they come up for a vote. so the excited democrats were wrong today to think that norquist had somehow amended his pledge in his technical response to "the washington post" about

the meaning of the pledge. nothing grover norquist said today either in his first interview or his second did anything to diminish republican anti-tax passion. joining me now, "washington post" columnist and msnbc contributor ez la klein. ezra, thank you for joining me. i have the pledge here. and just to clarify for people, it says that, you know, i pledge to the taxpayers, blah, blah, blah, that i would oppose any efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates. if congress sits there and does absolutely nothing, as we've described here before, in current law, the rates will automatically go up. and what norquist is saying certainly if some bill were to come to the floor to prevent those rates from going up, he would expect you to vote for it. but technically, if you do absolutely nothing, you're still living within the pledge. >> i find this whole story to be absolutely hilarious, actually.

the pledge isn't a spell that if you can trick it or some sort of fantasy character guarding a gateway that if you can trick it dissolves and no republicans are bound by it. the pledge is a manifestation of the fact that republicans oppose tax increases. if you find a way to increase taxes such as that the pledge does not technically cover it, that does not mean that republicans will support your tax increases. if you let the bush tax cuts expire, you will raise taxes pie $3.6 trillion as opposed to what happened if you extend the bush tax cuts. that is vastly larger tax increase than anything that is on the table currently. so it is very odd to think that mr. are republicans that due to the wording of the pledge would move to support that. >> right. duval patrick, who was a harvard classmate of grover norquist, was at a reunion with him in 2003, and he wrote about this in "the washington post" recently. and when grover apparently in a panel discussion said something

about trying to create a permanent republican majority, some pointed out that, oh, you don't really expect to hold the presidency for the republicans forever, and grover's response was, we will make it so that a democrat cannot govern as a democrat. now, that certainly seems to have been successfully executed by norquist. he has been at this for 25 years, working in utter public obscurity for most of that time, but being very, very effective backstage. and this is the year when i started bringing him onstage, and now everyone has him onstage. but he has succeeded in making it so that a democrat cannot govern as a democrat. you have a democrat spending all of this year talking about how much should we cut. >> i wouldn't give him quite as much credit i think as you do. i think two things have succeeded in that. number one, the filibuster. even when democrats do have a majority, unless they have 60 votes, which is very rare, then

it's pretty easy for the minority to block whatever they want to do, and vice versa. and then in 2010, obviously, the voters brought in a lot of the republicans and gave them the house, and the house republicans have kept obama have governing as a democrat by being unwilling to let america keep its credit rating. i think that norquist is good at articulating the republican strategy here, but i wouldn't give him so much credit for putting it into action. >> i have seen legislators in the back room talking about the problem they have doing this because their signature is on -- and this has been for decades, that they have signed this thing. they take these things far near seriously than i think some people might think they do. you know, the 60 votes thing in the senate has always been kind of losery, because there are three parties in the senate. there's a liberal party, a conservative party, and a moderate party.

and we have never been close to having 60 conservatives in the senate or 60 liberals in the senate. when we had 60 democrats in the senate, we didn't have 60 liberals. so there's this expectation that all you need is that magic number 60 to get to some sort of coherent, consistent, governing position. but 60 wouldn't do it. >> agreed. and, you know, that's true. and of course health care reform can only be as liberal as ben nelson and joe lieberman led it be. but if you only needed 51 votes, you could have cut a deal with prior or nelson or lieberman or five or six or seven other moderate senators. you have a lot more running room to move the bill in different directions depending on what they personally supported. so that is where the number 60 comes into play. even if you do get it, you're basically giving full control over senate legislation over to whoever are the most conservative for democrats or liberal for republicans members of your caucus. >> that's why you see reconciliation bills pass with

51 votes. >> exactly. >> ezra, thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you. the governor of virginia has had a debt ceiling conversion. if the u.s. gets downgraded, his state will get downgraded too. so now he's suddenly for averting the crisis, since it will be bad politics for him in virginia. he's finally figured that out. that's in "the rewrite." but up next, republicans continue to beg new jersey governor chris christie to run for president, but polls show his political star is falling fast.

first off, it's none of your business. i don't ask you where you send your kids to school. don't bother me about where i send mine. >> none of your business. how does that kind of talk play in new jersey? the man who many republicans would love to run for the republican nomination for president against barack obama isn't doing so well in his home state. a new poll found that only 43% of voters approve of governor chris christie's handling of the state, and 53% disapprove. ppp says this is down significantly from his 48-45 rating in january, which wasn't so good either. christie is also down with independents, 40-54. in a head-to-head matchup, christie trails newark mayor

cory booker 43% to 47%. and in the matchup we would really like to see, christie is tied with bruce springsteen at 42% to 42%. the poll was conducted through automati automated telephone interviews which we continue to believe is not as accurate as when a real person makes the call. coming up -- new details about the hacking scandal at the rupert murdoch empire that point questions in the direction of "the new york post." michael isikoff joins me. and later, something we never thought we would ever see. stephen colbert breaks character, and he does it to bring you a very important message in his own words. introducing the schwab mobile app.

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rupert murdoch's son james is now being accused of not telling the truth during a key part of his testimony to parliament tuesday. during tuesday's testimony,

james murdoch said he was never told about a vital email suggesting reporter neville thur elback was involved in phone hacking. but today, collin miler, editor of "news of the world" just before it shut down and tom crone, the paper's former head of legal affairs, said they had told murdoch of the email which included transcripts of hacked voicemails. in a joint statement, they said -- news corp. then issued this statement.

james murdoch stands by his testimony to the select committee. the committee chairman may ask james murdoch to appear again before parliament to clear up that matter. this cartoon appeared in today's edition of murdoch's british newspaper "the times," under the word "priorities." the cartoon shows a group of starving so mallian children with one of them saying, i've had a bellyful of phone hacking. the cartoon provoked a storm of criticism on twitter. the bbc's robert rea tweeted, disgraceful. implies focusing on corruption allows famine to go unchecked. npr's louisa lim said it's crude, tasteless, and comes off as pro murdoch propaganda. and on this side of the ocean, it seems like the united states

is indeed investigating claims of news corp. repeatedly hacking one of its rivals. joining me now, michael isikoff. michael, what is the latest in terms of the investigation that's going on here in the states? >> well, the new development is this company in new jersey, floor graphics, which is an advertising firm that does floor graphics for safeway and stores like that, had been a rival of news america, which was the advertising division of news corp. and back in 2003 and 2004, it discovered that its password protected computer system had been hacked and traced it to an ip address at news america, its competitor. they reported this to the fbi at the time, to the u.s. attorney's office, then headed by chris christie in new jersey, and the new jersey state police. nothing came of those.

but these allegations were a central part of a lawsuit that floor graphics filed against news america, and that was settled with a $29 million payment by news america to the owners of floor graphics in 2009. what happened this week is the lawyer for floor graphics gets contacted by two prosecutors at the u.s. attorney's office out of the southern district of new york, and an fbi agent, asking about the details of that computer hacking incident. it was clearly related to this broader inquiry of news corp. that was ordered last week by attorney general holder, and it's the first sign of a tangible, specific allegation of hacking in the united states that's being investigated by the justice department. >> and so where -- news of america, who is in that entity?

who would be exposed in this? >> the chairman and ceo is a man by the name of paul carlucci, who is the publisher of "the new york post." he was at news of america, and he was promoted to the job of "new york post" editor in 2005. after this incident had taken place. >> so here is an operation that may have engaged in this kind of activity just in its operation of an advertising business. when you move over into the operations of "the new york post," there could be even more interesting ways as they have discovered in london in the newspapers to exploit that kind of thing. >> well, could be. but let's be clear. we don't have any evidence of that. and i should also point out that it would be very hard to see how the feds could make a case about this particular allegation alone at this time, because the statute of limitations has expired.

there's a five-year statute of limitations on computer crime. but if it's part of a broader pattern of conduct, which is what lawyers suspect, the fbi and the prosecutors are trying to look at here, is there this broader pattern, if so, then this could become part of that. >> and big surprise, a very, very sharp contradiction in james murdoch's testimony plays out today. and the murdoch response was basically no response at all. >> right. you know, the interesting character to watch there is tom crone, the lawyer. he's made clear that he's not going to be the fall guy here. and if they -- if the murdochs and news corp. try to lay everything on him, because he was the chief lawyer for "news of the world," he's not going to sit idly by. so if the brits are looking for a john dean character in all this, i would think that tom crone is the guy to watch, and

the statement today contradicting james murdoch's testimony about that email is the first sign that he may in fact be willing to go there. >> nbc news national investigative correspondent michael isikoff. thank you for joining me tonight, michael. >> thank you, lawrence. coming up, virginia governor bob mcdonald flip flops on the debt ceiling, even though he never actually understood what the debt ceiling was in the first place. that's in tonight's "rewrite." and later, one of our favorite funnymen gets serious to deliver a very important message. stay tuned for stephen colbert's powerful anti-bullying video for the it gets better campaign. that's coming up. every day, all around the world, energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources

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[ male announcer ] with integrated healthcare solutions from dell, every patient file is where dr. ling needs it. now she can spend more time with patients and less time on paperwork. ♪ dell. the power to do more. playing tough with the debt ceiling is a lot of fun until credit agencies threaten to downgrade your state's credit

and you're the republican governor of that state. that's in "the rewrite" next. and later, stephen colbert as you've never seen him. he breaks character to say it gets better.

time for tonight's "rewrite." from day one of the debt ceiling crisis, which was actually november 2, 2010, when republicans won control of the house of representatives, yeah, that was when the debt ceiling crisis began, on election night. that's when i predicted that the

debt ceiling would become the biggest congressional crisis of 2011 because i knew the debt ceiling was going to have to be raised this year, and i was certain that newly elected tea party republicans had never before in their lives heard the phrase "debt ceiling," did not know what it is, and when they found out what it is, they would hate it. and oppose raising it. so from day one, because they were never going to understand it, the tea party was always going to lead to trouble with the debt ceiling. tea party favorite, michele bachmann, is fast becoming a single issue presidential candidate. she's running on the platform of i don't understand the debt ceiling. >> i will not vote to increase the debt ceiling. it goes against my common sense of how i grew up in iowa.

>> so i guess she grew up in a debt-free iowa, where no one had a mortgage. everyone just paid cash for their homes and their farms. no one had car payments to make. everyone just paid cash for their cars. the once conservative and now wild-eyed right-wing heritage foundation urged republicans to stand strong and not raise the debt ceiling if they don't get the spending cuts deal they want. today, heritage issued a pep talk press release to congressional republicans and referenced a classic film, "the bridge on the river kwai," to describe what they should do, follow the lead of a deranged colonel and blow up everything.

the debt ceiling has been easy for republican governors to talk tough about, since they believe it has nothing to do with them. it's just something that congressional republicans are stuck dealing with. rising republican star governor bud mcdonald of virginia was willing to blow up the world, and not raise the debt ceiling. >> the only way that it's appropriate to increase the debt limit is if there is a tangible, written written, irreversible set of reforms of spending in the united states government that makes sure that we are on a downward trajectory in spending that will get us much further. if we don't achieve those goals, then i don't see any gain in increasing the debt limit. >> mcdonald is one of those

republicans that had no idea what the debt ceiling was before this year. now he does. the credit rating agency moody's warned earlier this week that five states, maryland, new mexico, south carolina, tennessee, and bob mcdonald's virginia, could have their credit downgraded if the federal government's credit is downgraded when the debt limit isn't raised. those states have an above average dependence on federal revenue, which means a downgrade in the federal government's credit would directly affect them. south carolina's state treasurer a tea partier, in a statement begged congress to conclude its debate and raise the debt ceiling, lest his state's aaa rating be downgraded. thousands of federal employees call virginia home. 60,000 federal jobs are based in arlington, virginia, alone. virginia collects income taxes

from every one of those federal employees. it needs them to be paid every week. federal procurement contracts are a large part of virginia's gross domestic product. it will be bad for all 50 states and for the world if the united states goes into default, but it will be very, very bad for virginia. someone has finally explained that to the previously oblivious republican governor bob mcdonald, who has rewritten his position on the debt ceiling. >> there's got to be a compromise. they've got to get this done immediately, or the uncertainty for the business community is going to be just devastating to our country. >> the biggest thing virginia has to fear now are economically illiterate republicans in washington who think exactly what virginia's governor used to think.

tired of seeing kids grow up in a country where their government tells them discrimination is ok, and i think it is no wonder that we continue to see kids being bullied in school, and see so many lgbt children take their own live because they have given up hope, because in my view this law simply encourages discrimination. >> that was delaware democrat freshman senator chris coons on legislation to repeal the 1996 defense of marriage act. senator coons focus on

discrimination couldn't be more ve relevant of the parents of a school district north of minneapolis-st. paul in minnesota. that school district is the largest in the state, with 40,000 students. in the last two years, there have been seven student suicides. school officials and parents disagree over how many of those suicides were a result of gay bullying, but we do know that at least four families say that was the cause of their child's death. we also know the district has a strict neutrality policy, that instructs school staff, quote, in the course of their professional duties to remain neutral on matters regarding sexual orientation. gay rights groups call it a gag order that keeps teachers from protecting gay, bisexual, and transgendered students. this from a school district that boasts about its character education. a districtwide program that teaches and emphasizes the core values of respect,

responsibility, appreciation of diversity, integrity, and compassion. these values are emphasized in all schools and at all grade levels. earlier today, the southern poverty law center and the national center for lesbian rights sued the school district challenging the so-called neutrality policy after school officials have repeatedly refused to consider changes to it. a federal investigation has also been launched by the departments of justice and education. it's also worth pointing out this school district is in minnesota's sixth congressional district. the same district represented by congresswoman michele bachmann.

but every day, new voices are added to the chorus calling for equality. since its launch, the it gets better project has produced videos featuring some of the biggest celebrities in hollywood. members of congress. even the president of the united states. and now stephen colbert has joined the cause, which he takes so seriously that he actually stepped out of character to deliver this message. >> hi, this is stephen colbert. i have a message for any gay and lesbian teaens out there. and i'm being told also bisexual and transgendered. really, anybody who is being picked on. it sucks. i agree. when i was in seventh grade, i remember being picked on all the time. and i got called queer a lot.

and i -- just sort of the word that got thrown as a weapon at people when i was a kid. and it was the most hurtful thing i think that the bullies could think of calling you. and, you know, i didn't like it. and one day i had this revelation, because a friend of mine named pat, who also got picked on by the bullies, was called a queer by one of the bullies. a big jock. and pat instead of sort of flinching or running away turned around and said, yeah, i am a queer. kiss me. and the bully said, what are you talking about? and he said i'm a queer. you called me queer. i am a queer. kiss me. i'll prove it. and the bully didn't know what to say. and he just turned around and walked away quietly. and i was stunned. i couldn't believe the magic

that pat had just worked. he had somehow figured out that if you don't give power to the words that people throw at you to hurt you, they don't hurt you anymore. and you actually have power over those people. and that's a lesson that i am grateful to him for, for my entire life. so if you can, realize the things that people say about you don't really matter. it's who you are. and the older you get, the more you'll understand that, because it gets better. people get nicer too. and there is breaking news tonight in the it does get better department. secretary of defense leon panetta will reportedly certify that the military is ready to end the ban on gays serving openly on the armed services tomorrow, clearing the way to repeal the 17-year-old ban.

he will certify that letting gays serve will not hurt the military's ability to fight. just two weeks ago, the chiefs of the military services told panetta that ending the ban would not affect military readiness. you can have the last word online at our blog, and you can follow my tweets. "the rachel maddow show" is up next. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, lawrence. i'm very glad that you played that stephen colbert thing. that was sort of -- that was sort of the best new thing in the world today among our staff. that was amazing to see him out of character. >> yeah. i saw it today, i thought we've got to throw it right in the show. >> yeah, it was great. thanks, lawrence. and thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. this is one of those days in news and politics where it simultaneously feels like nothing is happening at all. after all, again today, congress still can't decide whether or not to destroy the economy. still working on making a decision on that one. that was true yesterday. that is still true today. so